Biography of René Grillet de Roven

A little is known about René Grillet de Roven (see the calculating machine of Grillet), Sieur Grillet Maistre Horlogeur, as he was titled. As it is clear from his name (spelled also René Grilliet), his origin is from the town of Roven (Rouen), in the northwestern France, the capital city of Normandy, where was created the Pascalene. Grillet was a well known at the time french mechanic, instrumentmaker and watchmaker of His Royal Highness King Louis XIV. Besides the calculating machine, which is of a particular interest for us, he is known as a maker of several other devices—a hygrometer (anemometer, actually for this invention he was accused of plagiarism from another instrumentmaker); graphometers; drawing instrument set; protractor, sector and square; set square, with plumb-bob. There is also a note from the upset Blaise Pascal from 1640s, about "a watchmaker from Rouen, who dared to make a beautiful, but absolutely useless for work copy of my machine...". It is possible Pascal to mention namely René Grillet, but this cannot be proved.

As it already have been mentioned in the article for his calculating machine, Grillet tried to make some money by his calculating machine, but with questionable success.

In 1681 Grillet exposed his calculating machine in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It seems he stayed in Netherlands for several years, probably perfecting his art there under the care of the skilled Dutch master-printers. In 1690 René Grillet is already in England, where he took patent for painting and printing calicos, and a factory for this purpose was opened in the Old Deer Park at Richmond. It was the first calico-printing factory in England.